February 2023 Monthly Running Challenge

February Goal: 90 Miles

2/3: 5.27 miles
2/4: 5.26 miles
2/5: 13.15 miles
2/6: 5.02 miles
2/9: 5.52 miles
2/10: 6.02 miles

40.24/90 miles completed for February

I ran 6 miles this morning. It was a little colder than I expected and a little drizzly, but not too bad. I felt good. My knee is slightly bruised, but other than that I am fine after my fall. I didn't see any critters today.

@quilteryoyo My watch is a Garmin FR 45s.

Good luck on your races this weekend @Eleanorhawkins and @tayrun_yadavA

@shanaber I'm sorry you had to cancel your trip. I hope you feel better soon.

I didn't post yesterday's workout. A friend came to town from W. VA unexpectedly, so I was able to have dinner with her both Thursday night and last night. It was really nice to be able to visit with her and meet some new people who were also at dinner with her. Last night, we were at a mutual friend's house, so I stayed late and we had a nice hour chat to ourselves. I really needed that.

I was able to get my workout in yesterday, but had to cut it short so I could get to dinner on time (once I found out when it was). I walked one mile and ran 1.5 miles, no walk breaks, at 4.2 mph. Felt okay.

Today, I was scheduled for a long, easy run....long being between 4 and 6 miles. Since I haven't had a lot of sleep, and it is a cutback week, I went for the minimum and ran 4 miles plus walked one total for warm up and cool down. My walk/run today was a ladder from 4.2-4.7 mph/3.8 mph for 4/1 min and then I did 3/2 min at 4.8/3.8 mph. Overall pace turned out to be 13:41 min/mile or 4.4 mph. My avg HR was 132, with a max of 149 bpm. Not too bad.

@tarun_yadavA and @eleanorhawkins Good luck today! You’ll do great!

@Scott6255 Good job with the 50 mile week! Awesome!

@martaindale It seems like you HM training is going well!

@shanaber Sorry to hear you had to postpone the beach Cliff walking! I hope you are feeling a bit better!!!

@quilteryoyo It sounds like you have been having fun social time. Great that you still got your workouts in even though they were slightly shorter than planned!!!

I’ve been too busy these past few days to post about my runs but will do a quick run through now.

Thursday I went to the gym and did 10k on the treadmill. After that I wanted to test if my leg hurt when I did all out efforts on the rowing machine. It didn’t! So, If I am still having an issue with my hamstring next week, I will try to do my max effort speed work on the rowing machine. I am happy I have a cross training possibility to get them in so I don’t have to skip them.

Friday I decided to give my tempo run a try with a plan to abort if my leg was bugging me. I ran at almost race pace for 30 minutes and my leg was “ok” about it, but I definitely felt that it is still in the healing process. I got 9k in.

Yesterday, I didn’t have much time so I went out as soon as the kids we’re up on a breakfast run. Meaning, I first did a little detour to get some km in then ran to the store on the way home to grab breakfast for us all. Here I got 7k in.

Today I am having a rest day, as there is a lot going on. I have been working on a lot of core, glute, leg isolation strengthening exercises, because I think that is one of the factors that led to my injury. I will probably do some strength exercises later today.

So far for February I am 88.2km down towards my 200km goal.

Feb 1 – 5.34 miles
Feb 4 – 9.07 miles
Feb 6 – 5.1 miles
Feb 8 – 5.11 miles
Feb 9 – 4.3 miles
Feb 11 – 10 miles

I haven’t been around this week due to work being crazy. The week was spent spending at least 11 hours in the office, coming home, and eating dinner while in front of the computer doing more work. We’re also in the midst of reductions in force and my boss was let go on Friday afternoon. As you can imagine things are pretty tense around the office. Last night, I finally had a chance to catch up reading, liking and hugging here. Yesterday, I met some friends for a 10-mile run. I ran out of energy around mile 6 and really wanted to quit. If it were not for said friends, I probably would have but I finished it out. I’ve been cutting back on calories, especially the kinds full of sugar, and I think that has affected my energy levels. Today is a windy, rainy day with temps around 40. I have no desire to go outside for a run. Planning to do some yoga shortly.

@shanaber – Your shingles sound so painful. I hope that you are better soon.
@kgirlhart – Glad you didn’t hurt yourself worse during your fall.
@Scott6255 – I’m going to have to check out that playlist.
Glad your hamstring seems to be healing @Laurz9191.
@quilteryoyo – Are you training for a race? You have been so consistent with your plan!

Can’t wait to hear all about your races @Tarun_yadavA and @eleanorhawkins! I see on Strava that @eleanorhawkins is finished and wow she had 4,564 feet in elevation gain!!!

Hi everyone.
Write more later... But done! 4"02... Waiting on official chip time. Sore 😣

@tarun_yadavA well done! Hope you had pizza and don't hurt too much tomorrow!
Thanks for the encouragement, etc, folks 💜

I'm zonked, but happy! 3rd place in my age group! There were probably only 3 of us but I'll take it. Annoyingly, I actually passed the woman who came 2nd on the last tough uphill stretch, but then the way back down on the other side was the kind of loose dirt and stones on a very steep descent that I really struggle with, and she passed me again. Still, it was only supposed to be a long run with aid stations for me, so very happy with the results.
It was the kind of race I really like, plenty of hills and some technical parts but also some easy trails, stunning views down to the coast, almond blossom, streams to run down and streams to cross. Not perfectly marked, but I managed not to go off course. Loads of aid stations and loads of food at the end (including a guy cutting serrano ham, was almost sad to be vegetarian). All in all the authentic was of the awesone kind 🙂
Not so awesome was family woes, the teenager was struggling yesterday so they stayed in the village with me overnight but then came home when they got out of bed, so they didn't see me finish or get my trophy and I had to hitch a ride back with the guys from the club who were there. But... we stopped at an Italian buffet for lunch so there was pasta and pizza. And gelato. Ha!